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The grammar schools era 1860-1912

In 1860 Queensland's first Parliament passed the Grammar Schools Act which allowed for the establishment of a grammar school in any town where
at least £1000 could be raised locally. The Act provided for a Government
subsidy of twice this local contribution. When established, each school could
be run by its own seven-member board, including a Government representative.
The first grammar school established under the 1860 Act was the Ipswich Grammar
School, opened in 1863. In the years 1863-1892, 10 grammar schools were opened,
the last being the Rockhampton Girls Grammar School.

Queensland grammar schools followed the traditional English model, with curricular
dominated by classical subjects like Latin and Greek. Because fees were charged,
the children of gentlemen, the wealthy of the colony, were the only ones likely
to avail themselves of grammar schools. These schools catered for an elite,
in accord with the nineteenth century view that popular education beyond the
elementary level was not desirable.

Provision for the award of scholarships to grammar schools was made in the
1860 Grammar Schools Act. The first awards were made in 1864
for the 1865 school year at Ipswich Grammar School (the only one then existing).
Between 1865 and 1873 only about twelve such scholarships were awarded. Selection
was on the basis of a personal examination by a senior officer (in 1864 the
Colonial Secretary acted as the first examiner). The first formal Scholarship
examination was held in July 1883. Until 1914 a fixed number of scholarships
was awarded though the number varied over the years depending on the amount
of money allocated. From 1914 this system was changed and all students obtaining
50 per cent or more in the examination, were awarded a scholarship to any
approved secondary school (which by then included State high schools).

In 1891 a Royal Commission on Education advised that a 'system of secondary
schools more directly controlled as to foundation and management by the State
would be less expensive and quite as effective in the education of the youth
of the colony'. Grammar schools would continue, but would be supplemented
by a State secondary system similar to the 'superior' school system in NSW,
in which secondary classes were attached to primary schools.

Initially, the Department of Public Instruction opposed this extension of
secondary education. The Under Secretary and General Inspector were both conservative
men who believed that the Department had enough to do to implement compulsory,
free and secular primary education. Furthermore, they felt that Queensland's
economy was not ready for such an expansion of secondary education: 'The State
can only absorb a certain quantity of highly educated labour and if it spends
the years of its young people in the pursuit of higher education, there will
be a loss as these young people find themselves forced to fall into the ordinary
avocations of life'. Perhaps there were social reasons too for this fear of
'over education'.

Despite these doubts, the Education Act of 1875 was amended
in 1897 to allow additional subjects to be taught. Literature, science, algebra
and geometry were added to the syllabus if sixth class, the highest in the
primary school. Though this change affected a small minority of schools, it
can be argued that State secondary education had thus come to Queensland.

Another area of development of secondary education was within the technical
colleges. During the 1880s and the 1890s some of them provided night classes
in grammar school subjects. By 1898 the Brisbane Technical College was providing
a full secondary curriculum during the day, and in 1905 the South Brisbane
Technical College opened a high school which prepared day students for the
Sydney public examinations. In 1910 the Department of Public Instruction established
separate day schools within the two Technical Colleges directly under their
administration - Central Technical College, Brisbane, and Warwick Technical
College. Though strongly oriented towards technical education, and consequently
not regarded as the first State high schools, these schools did prepare students
for the Junior and Senior examinations of the University of Queensland.